Putting Food ByWhen I first moved to the country, putting food by for the winter by preserving vegetables and fruit from our garden allowed us to save money and have delicious things to eat all year long. It was a continuation of the Victory Garden mentality that had been encouraged during World War Two. 
How times have changed. Fresh and frozen produce from all over the world is available to most of us all the year long. We never have to wait for a season since somewhere in the world that fruit or vegetable is ready to be picked.Yet again,times change. With food quality scares and price increases for oil, there is growing interest in buying local,in the Hundred Mile Diet, in Authentic Food,in
organic food.
I like the vegetables I grow in my organic garden. I like to know where they came from and how they were grown. I like the fact that it might be mere minutes from garden to plate. And I like to add my bit to the trend of eating locally. I freeze many vegetables, make juice and jelly jam and from fruit,and put wild game in the freezer. What has changed are the methods I use for putting food by. New techniques,new research,new storage products have allowed me to put up food faster and more efficiently. 
For instance, I no longer can anything but jelly or jam. I used to can many jars of tomatoes…now I make
tomato sauce
and freeze it. If there are more tomatoes than I can care for at the moment,I put the tomatoes directly into the freezer and use them when I need them or make the sauce later.I used to keep a pot of boiling water on the stove and heat up the kitchen to blanch beans or whatever vegetables I was going to freeze. Now I put the vegetables in a container, cover it, and blanch it using the micro wave. My kitchen doesn’t heat up and I find that the vegetables are just as good. Recently I was thrilled and delighted when one of my granddaughters’ husband (who is a city boy) said,”When I eat at great grandmother’s house, I always feel so good.” I take that as a compliment for the fact that the food is grown without chemicals or pesticides and is full of flavor. Whether from the garden or from the freezer,the food has been freshly picked and prepared or freshly put up for the winter. It tastes good! Putting food by just makes sense!
Find thousands of unique products for a simple lifestyle from Lehmans.com. Click here. Freezing Green Beans is an easy way to enjoy your organic garden bounty in the winter months. Blanching beans in boiling water helps to retain their flavor, color and texture in the freezer. Freezing Tomatoes is a great way to keep them.When I am overwhelmed by the quantity of tomatoes that are ripe in my garden, I bag them and put them whole into the freezer. How to Make Grape Jelly A good grape and homemade grape juice is the start of how to make grape jelly. We planted our Concord Grape Vines About forty years ago and they still bear well. Return to Country Home from Putting Food By
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